


Drabble Collection

by orphan_account



Category: No. 6 - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Drabble Collection, Gen, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:31:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically the dumping place of all my No. 6 drabbles. Most if not all of them will be angsty and/or Character Study-ish. Most will be centered around Nezumi and/or Shion. Every drabble has its own summary. Rating may vary between drabbles. If any story requires a warning, it will be displayed with the summary of that drabble.</p><p>Summaries:</p><p>The Starfilled Sky (#1): No. 6's light had always drowned out the stars. POV: Nezumi. Post-series, pre-reunion.</p><p>The Knife That Shouldn't Be Shaking (#2): Killing was easy, so why wouldn't his hand move? POV: Nezumi. Set during the series.</p><p>Blank (#3): The kid from Chronos was full of surprises. POV: Marissa (Shion's teacher in Lost Town). Set after Shion moved to Lost Town.</p><p>Falling Snow (#4): And the snow kept falling. I honestly have no idea what's going on here either. POV: objectif. WARNING: major character death.</p><p>The Painter's Portrait (#5): Shion's thoughts in the moments after he shot Rashi. Book/manga-verse. POV: Shion. WARNING: graphic descriptions of death.</p><p>Snake, Eve and Apple (#6): The snake that tempted Eve. POV: Nezumi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Starfilled Sky

The beauty of the stars never ceased to amaze him. In No. 6, you could never see them. Sure, you could see traces of them in West Block, but nothing nearly as spectacular as here in the desert. Here, miles away from that damned city, you could see them all too clearly.

The first time he had stopped to look at them, it had been a month after his departure. He had been in the middle of nowhere, all alone, without even so much as a rat to keep him company. And he couldn't sleep. So he'd lain there in his sleeping bag, staring up at the sky. That was the first time he saw them.

Since then, he had always stopped to look up when they appeared. He didn't know the constellations or their names, and he didn't care. He just wanted to sit and marvel at the glistering dots shining back at him from the ink-black sky.

So tonight, too, he sat back and enjoyed the painting above him.

…

Just like he planned on keeping his promise to return, Shion seemed to be keeping his promise too. Every time he entered a new village (there were a surprising amount of those. Apparently, a lot of the earth had turned habitable again over the years), there was more good news coming from No. 6. Shion seemed to be doing a great job; by now, No. 6 had the best healthcare system in the world, the biggest public library, the best housing possibilities for the poor, the best theaters, and the first democracy to be established since the Great War. Shion had just been elected as major for the second time, and he seemed to be doing a bang-up job at it.

When the flow of news finally stopped, almost ten years after No. 6's fall, Nezumi decided that it was time.

That night, he packed his bags quietly and left the city under the light of the stars.

…

Almost a year later, he stood before the city that had destroyed everything he ever held dear, and realized with a shock that he could see the stars.


	2. The Knife That Shouldn't Be Shaking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killing was easy, so why wouldn't his hand move? POV: Nezumi. Set during the series.

Drops of blood were slipping down his neck and unto the cushion beneath him. The knife that had caused the thin stream was trembling.

Nezumi tried to stabilize his hand. He didn't even know why it was shaking in the first place. He had done this a million times before. One slit. One slit was all it would take. One slit, and it would all be over.

Of course, it hadn't always been that way. When he was just starting out, it had been messy. It was only on rare occasions that he actually managed to kill someone in one slit. Most of the time, it took multiple attempts, and it was a lot more painful for the victim.

By now, however, he was not only a master of the knife, but also a master of death. Killing someone was easy now.

He pressed the knife against his neck. He wanted him dead. He wanted him to bleed out on this bed, for him to die without ever knowing that tomorrow wouldn't come. He wanted to slit that fragile little neck open. He wanted revenge, revenge on that dammed city that had taken everything from him.

The boy asleep before him may not have been that city, but he was close enough. He was from that city. He was arrogant. He was full of lies. He was selfish. And, most of all, he had the ability to make everyone love him. He had both Rikiga and Inukashi wrapped around his finger, like No. 6 had its citizens wrapped around theirs. He was too dangerous, and Nezumi should kill him now.

The knife slipped out of his hand. The mattress caught it, and there it lay, still, while Nezumi fell to his knees. He looked at the peacefully sleeping boy, the boy who trusted so deeply that tomorrow would come, and realized that he couldn't do it.

He couldn't do it.

The clock ticked past, seconds flying by as Nezumi continued to sit there, numb.


	3. Blank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kid from Chronos was full of surprises. POV: Marissa (Shion's teacher in Lost Town). Set after Shion moved to Lost Town.

When the boy came to their school, they had all been debriefed on him. "He's from Chronos," the headmaster had told them. "He was cast out for reasons that we don't need to know. We need to keep an eye on him. If he shows any signs of rebellion towards the city please report it to me."

All of the teachers, including her, had nodded. They had all been prepared for someone who was a troublemaker, almost a Violent Criminal, but instead, they got Shion. Sweet, smart Shion. They had expected the smart part, with him being placed in the gifted curriculum, but sweet? Marissa never would've thought that he would've been sweet.

But he was. He was nice to everybody, helped others out whenever he could, never bragged about his intellect, and was just an all-around good person. And as the months passed on, she began to wonder more and more how such a good kid could've gotten kicked out of Chronos.

Slowly, the Holy Celebration approached, and they were ordered to do something special for it. So she clapped in her hands, turned to the class and asked them to write an assay about what No. 6 did to make them happy.

By the end of the day, everyone had turned in their paper. Except one.

"Don't know where to start?" she asked Shion after school. The paper in front of him was completely blank, as was the stare that he was giving it. It made her somewhat worried. Shion was always the first to turn in the assignment.

"No," he said. "I just don't know what to write about."

She blinked surprised. What did he mean by that?

"I'm sorry, Shion, I think I misunderstood you. Could you repeat yourself?"

"I don't know what to write about," he repeated.

Her mind was reeling. How could he not know what to write about? Even here in Lost Town, the worst part of the city, NO. 6 did so much for them and – oh.

"Are you sad that you had to move from Chronos?" she asked, keeping her voice as kind as possible. That made sense. Even if it was his own fault, moving from the best part to the worst part of town was still quite a shock. It made sense to be at least a little unhappy about that.

But Shion shook his head. He sighed and turned around, looking her straight in the eye. The serious look in those violet eyes sent a chill down her spine.

"No, I'm not sad," Shion spoke in a clear, determined voice. "I'm happier here than I've ever been in Chronos."

What?

"It's so backwards. According to the city, everyone in Chronos is happier than the people here. And that's not true. In Chronos, nobody ever laughed. We had everything we could possibly wish for, and nobody laughed. Here, we barely have enough, and we need to work for it, but everyone is smiling. I'm happier here than I've ever been in Chronos, and so is my mother. Meaning that the city's logic is faulty. And if that is faulty, than how do I know what they do to make me happy? Because their system isn't doing it, that's for sure."

After that, he just stood up and walked out of the door.

Marissa stared at the blank piece of paper.

_"I'm happier here than I've ever been in Chronos."_

How was that possible?

The blank piece of paper stared right through her hollow soul.


	4. Falling Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the snow kept falling. I honestly have no idea what's going on here either. POV: objectif. WARNING: major character death.

The snow fell from above, laying a blanket of white over the body. The red on the ground was slowly erased into white once more as the blanket covered it.

Around the snow-white cage, sobs could be heard.

"Why?!" a voice cried out desperately. "Why?!"

A boy sat on his knees next to the body, his hair as white as the fluttering snowflakes. His hand was fisted over his heart, gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly.

Abruptly, the strength in the boy's spine broke and he doubled over, his clear tears falling on the black hair on the ground.

The snow kept falling.


	5. The Painter's Portrait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shion's thoughts in the moments after he shot Rashi. Book/magna-verse. POV: Shion. WARNING: graphic descriptions of death.

The two faces – that of the innocent man and that of the enemy – were blurring together as he pulled the trigger. The two-faced victim slumped back against the wall, blood splattering behind him. The pained look faded from his eyes as a hollow one replaced it.

Strange. Shion had expected the enemy to look different. He had seen many dead people, even before he discovered that mountain of hell. Children, elderly, adults of all races died. He saw them on the streets daily. They all had the hollow look in their eyes that the monster in front of him had. Why? Why did that murdering monster have the same look in his eyes as all the people that had died innocent?

He cocked his head to take a better look at the body in front of him. Mouth open, some dried blood on his lips. Blood. Blood was the central theme in this portrait. Blood on the wall, blood on his chest, blood on his head, blood on his lips, blood on his hands. It was like a painter had used way too much red painting this scene.

But he was the one who had painted the red, wasn't he? Did that make him the painter of this portrait? His brush was the gun, his paint the monster's blood, his painting the corpse in front of him.

The corpse.

He was dead.

Shion knew this, of course. He had pulled the trigger himself. The enemy had begged him to save him, and he had pulled the trigger.

The man down there in hell had also begged him to save him. He couldn't do it, then. Nezumi had to do it for him, because he was his usual incompetent self.

So why could he do it now? If he couldn't save the man back then, how had he managed to save the man here.

He looked at the wound in the man's chest. It was non-fatal. If he hadn't fired the second shot, the man would've survived.

He hadn't saved him. He had condemned him.

He had killed him, and nothing more.

 _So what?_ a nasty voice in his head said. _He was a monster. He tried to kill Nezumi. He killed one of his subordinates without a second thought. He was a monster. He wasn't human._

But wasn't he? That hollow look. That hollow look in his eyes, the look of someone who had lived and was now gone. The look that all the humans in West Block had when their lives were taken away from him.

He realized it with a joint.

The man in front of him was human. A bad human, but still a human none the less. And he had killed him. He had painted the overly-red portrait in front of him, and not even in an effort to save him, but as revenge. Revenge. The stupidest motivator of all, the one all the tales warned against, and he had used it as an excuse to take a human's life.

If the man in front of him was a monster for killing, then what was he?

The barrel of the gun suddenly seemed a lot more likable.


	6. Snake, Eve and Apple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The snake tempted Eve. POV: Nezumi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have not read the Bible, nor do I claim to know anything about it. This is merely a work of fiction inspired by fanart. This fanart (at least, I'm assuming it's fanart), to be precise (sorry, I have no idea how to incorporate fanart into the actual chapter): https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2f/d8/58/2fd8585737e2df8a61606aeff29d5e64.jpg The picture also isn't mine, I just found it while browsing and tracked it down. I don't know the origional drawer, so if anyone knows, please tell me. Also, the apple symbolizes caring/love. I totally botched this, but meh.

The blood-red apple sat before him. The snake smiled. "Eat it," he whispered with a gentle voice. "Just take a bite. What could possibly go wrong?"

What could possibly go wrong? He asked himself that question too. What could possibly go wrong if he bit into that apple? Nobody would see it. Nobody would know it. And the apple seemed so delicious. Surely it wouldn't matter if he just took one small bite?

But every time he stretched his arm out to the apple, God's voice came back to him. Good, not the one who created him, but the one who raised him. He heard her voice echoing through his head. Words that said "Do not sigh", "Do not let your emotions show" and "Never get attached."

His hand closed around the apple. He couldn't eat it. He would be defying her wishes.

But then the snake smiled his bright smile at him and when he looked down, he saw that the apple had already been eaten.


End file.
